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5 October, 2008
A forum to highlight, before the ILO, the social unravelling that comes with the widespread use of Contract and Agency Labour – and all forms of precarious work – was held 3 October in Geneva. The half-day programme was intended to give notice to the ILO that it must address the issue in order to preserve its work relationships agenda.
The Global Union Federations ICEM, Building and Wood Workers’ International (BWI), International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF), International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF), and Union Network International (UNI) took part, as did the Council of Global Unions, the umbrella organisation of the GUFs, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Trade Union Advisory Council of the OECD.
The forum had input from representatives of the Bureau of Workers’ Activities (Actrav) of the ILO.
Speaker after speaker emphasized the threat to core ILO Conventions 87 and 98 by the ever-growing use of short-term contract and temporary workers by employers. With that, came a common outcry, a lowering of living and working conditions is sure to follow.
In introducing the subject, ICEM General Secretary Manfred Warda equated the current “precariousness” of the global financial situation, and the hopeful end to “blind faith” markets, with the necessity for the ILO to begin the process to introduce global standards on precarious work.
ICEM Gen. Sec. Manfred Warda
“The issue of precarious work is fundamental to the very essence of the ILO,” stated Warda. “The erosion of employment structures robs workers of the will and capacity to join unions, and it gives families a permanent feeling of insecurity.”
Warda stressed that the ILO must begin serious discussions with its employer constituencies and governmental units to establish recommendations and standards on the issue.
ICEM testimony also came from Danish trade union leader Jørgen Juul Rasmussen, the General Secretary of Dansk El-Forbund. He said the practice of employing contract or agency workers is now common in both developed and developing nations. “Our experience, which is not always easy, is to identify the primary employer, and then use all means to enforce the law regarding health insurance, pension rights, and other social criteria on behalf of agency workers.”
The strategy of Dansk El-Forbund, an electrical workers’ union, said Rasmussen, is to be pro-active in organising agency workers and so-called subcontractors.
Dansk El-Forbund Gen. Sec. Jørgen Juul Rasmussen
BWI General Secretary Anita Normark said companies engage temporary workers to cut costs, increase their flexibility, and to have less responsibility.
Global trade unions and the ILO, she said, must engage governments and companies “on what this is leading to in society. For governments, this is fast becoming an issue on how to secure the economies of their nations.”
IMF Gen. Sec. Marcello Malentacchi
IMF General Secretary Marcello Malentacchi called attention to an ILO complaint that his federation, together with the Korean Metal Workers’ Union, brought before the Committee on Freedom of Association over falsification of contract workers. He said at the Kiryung Electronics factory, an operation cited in the complaint, only 5% of workers in the plant are permanent workers and they are male.
“Nearly all the (others) are women earning 47% less than their male colleagues.”
He added, “Our unions are facing an uphill battle and they need the support of the ILO. The best hope for precarious workers to improve their situation is to unionise.”
Other case study experiences were shared by Alke Boessinger and Claire Parfitt of UNI and Peter Rossman of IUF. Rossman used examples of Nestle globally and Unilever regionally to prove that "a declining (unionised) bargaining unit means declining conditions for all ... and shrinking applicability of the core labour standards."
The forum opened with endorsement of a process toward ILO debate on the subject by Actrav Director Dan Cunniah, who said there should be an ILO Convention on precarious work and that more can and should be done to achieve one.
Raquel Gonzalez of the ITUC’s Workers’ Group called the 3 October discussions important because the issue is a major obstacle to the decent work relationship. She said the ILO’s declaration from June 2008, the Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalisation, has several provisions which tie in with precarious employment.
Gonzalez also said the growth of temporary work must be central in discussions next year during the ILO Labour Conference’s focus on Gender Equality, “since women are over-represented in this type of work.”
In the mid 1990s, the ILO did take up the issue of temporary and agency labour, but the discussions were dropped due to lack of consensus, within the tripartite structures, over definitions, terms, and language related to non-regular work.